For the Padres, what’s happened in the Dominican Republic has stayed in the Dominican Republic. Not by choice. But that’s what happens when nothing happens.

Back in 2007, the Padres looked around baseball’s landscape and found it dotted with Dominican players. They also discovered none of those dots on their property. Of course, they had no presence in the island nation, so it wasn’t too surprising.

Hard to find diamonds hoping they’ll just stick to the bottom of your shoes.

For years -- due to bad drafting and bad luck -- they were unable to bring up most drafted everyday players from their minor league system (pitching never has been a problem), so John Moores, who then owned the ballclub, went along with his baseball people. He threw millions into the Dominican, building a state-of-the-art baseball academy in Santo Cristobal.

“To be successful on this island, we have to treat the island the same way as any of our minor league affiliates,” ex-General Manager Kevin Towers said at the time.

And so they have. With similar results, when it comes to position players.

The outcome from their piles of Dominican pesos? Nothing. Well, basically nothing. The Padres do have a DC player on their roster, reliever Joaquin Benoit, but he arrived in December as an expensive free agent.

Their venture into the Dominican has been a failure. At the very least, a major disappointment?

“To some degree, anyway, I’d have to say yes,” says current Padres GM Josh Byrnes, who like Towers, isn’t adverse to honesty. “But it is one of the hardest things we have to do, evaluating players from there, because you sign them young and don’t know for five or six years.

“When I was in Boston, they spent a lot of money on the Dominican -- $15 million in four years -- and had Hanley Ramirez to show for it. Thing is, you have to sign a lot of players to hit on a few.”

Have to agree with that. Judging talent from the DC -- and that sometimes includes guessing ages -- is difficult, but the results have to be better. The Padres have one top Dominican prospect, 22-year-old outfielder Rymer Liriano, who can play, but sat out 2013 due to Tommy John surgery and currently resides in Double-A ball at San Antonio.

Certainly there should be more than one guy.

“Your question is fair,” Byrnes says. “We’re 6-7 years out now (since their foray into DC), so you would hope for more players pushing the major league roster.”

Or even minor league rosters.

The Padres have trouble scoring runs. Despite giving up fewer scores than most clubs in baseball, they’re the worst at scoring them themselves, and they haven’t been good at it for a long time. They have made some horrible draft day judgments -- especially high in the first round (Matt Bush and Donovan Tate aren’t the only ones) -- but they also have had the door leading to the room of good fortune slammed in their faces.